Any e-commerce store’s primary objective is increasing visitors. However, how can you attract customers to your online store without investing heavily in marketing and advertising? The solution is to understand how to use e-commerce SEO.
The process of optimizing your website according to search engine best practices and upgrading your content to reflect what your consumers are looking for is known as e-commerce search engine optimization or SEO.
More customers, brand awareness, and sales are some advantages of SEO for E-commerce websites. However, understanding how to handle search optimization can be challenging due to the frequent changes made to search engine algorithms.
The basic principles of e-commerce SEO are covered in this article, including how to organize your website, conduct keyword research, and provide content for product pages. This SEO checklist will put you in a position to rank and obtain some SEO benefits.
Table of Content
- The importance of SEO for e-commerce websites
- How to develop an SEO plan for e-commerce
- Keyword Research
- Website Structure
- Technical SEO
- On-Page SEO
- Blogging
- Backlinks
- Conclusion
The importance of SEO for e-commerce websites
A search engine results page (SERP) is displayed when you perform a Google search. Approximately ten organic results can be found here:
Google Shopping ads and sponsored ads are displayed above these organic results:
The main goal for e-commerce store owners is to make sure their category and product pages show up among the top organic search results on Google’s first page.
Hence, one should keep in mind that only a few people visit websites that are not in the top ten, and even those that are in positions three to five get significantly less traffic than the top results.
According to the data, 27.6% of all clicks on a Google SERP go to the first result. Hence, it is proven that SEO is important.
Therefore, the goal is to appear as high as possible on the first page of search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, both for product-related search phrases and for searches within your e-commerce domain.
How to develop an SEO plan for e-commerce
Check out these six steps if you’re new to SEO and want to increase your store’s ranking. They provide helpful guidance on how to implement correct fundamental e-commerce SEO on your website.
- Keyword Research
- Website Structure
- Technical SEO
- On-Page SEO
- Blogging
- Backlinks
1. Keywords Research
Finding high-volume keywords that your potential consumers are using is the first stage in any e-commerce SEO plan. You can do e-commerce keyword research in a variety of methods.
Traditional keyword research and e-commerce keyword research are a little different. However, it is recommended that you target both commercial and informational keywords, even if the majority of websites only care about informational keywords.
Consumers who are using informational keywords want information and answers. Those keywords are extremely important to blogs and content-rich websites.
Those keywords are important in e-commerce stores as well but buying intent keywords are also necessary for e-commerce stores.
Let us give you an example of the buying intent keyword, “buy ladies’ shoes online” This is not an informational keyword. This keyword will only be searched by those individuals who are willing to buy. That is the reason, it is advised to add buying intent keywords as well.
Eventually, there are various tools for keyword research such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ubersuggest, Ahref, etc. However, if you are a beginner then it is recommended to use Google Keyword Planner because it is a free tool.
2. Website Structure
The layout and the structure of your website’s pages have an impact on your search engine rankings when it comes to SEO e-commerce.
Your user experience (UX) is also impacted by the structure of your website. Therefore, the layout of your store should be simple for both users and search engine bots to navigate.
The structure of your website may get more complex as you add and remove categories and goods. Therefore, before moving further with your website development, be sure to:
- The structure of your website is simple and can be easily modified as your store expands.
- All of your website’s pages are accessible with a few clicks.
3. Technical search engine optimization
Technical SEO is a science that works behind the curtains. Although the users of the website cannot see it, but it guarantees that your website is mobile-friendly, crawler-optimized, and has optimal speed. Technical SEO results in:
- Increased user engagement due to your site’s speed and ease of use
- More natural traffic as a result of your website being easier to crawl
Technical SEO is basically implemented for Google bots. They see it and react accordingly.
The following are some strategies to enhance your technical SEO for e-commerce:
- You must build proper internal linking with your menus.
- Do not forget to submit your sitemap on Google Search Console.
All the Images including products or banners, should be optimized in order to load your website quickly.
4. E-commerce on-page SEO
It’s time to optimize the content on your two highest-value page types after you’ve completed your keyword research and your site structure is ready to go:
- Pages for product categories
- Pages of products
In SEO for E-commerce websites, our main focus is on these two-page types.
Characteristics that require website optimization:
- Add your keywords to the title tags, meta tags, and meta descriptions.
- Make sure to add product images Alt Text. It is a short description of the image.
- Do not forget to add keywords in the names of your files.
- Give special attention to the URLs of products, collections, web pages, and blog pages. Keywords should be included in URLs, but make sure to make it short.
Keep in mind that your title tags and descriptions are Google-facing when you optimize them. Getting them on the first page is the main objective. Convincing users to click over to your website is the secondary objective.
5. Blogging
We write blogs on e-commerce websites to increase their visibility on search engines. This is basically part of On-Page and Technical SEO. It makes sure search engines believe your website is reliable enough to rank for particular keywords related to your audience’s needs and interests.
A well-written blog provides a consistent flow of unique content for your store. Once you start writing quality content, your credibility will increase as more people find you on search engines. As a result, this will eventually increase your ranking.
Blogging can be difficult for e-commerce businesses because it requires resources, time, and effort to do well. Therefore, you have to create a proper content schedule for it. Publishing blog posts on a random basis will not increase your website visitors. This should be your regular task if you want to outrank your competitors.
6. Backlinks
Backlinking is among the oldest elements of the Google algorithm. By analyzing the quantity of links a webpage receives from other websites, this approach seeks to determine the quality of that webpage.
Google assesses a website’s credibility based on the quantity, quality, and relevancy of its links. Because of this, search engines perceive new websites that have few links as having less authority. Although this can be fixed with time, creating high-quality backlinks helps accelerate Google’s recognition of your authority.
This is also a regular task which should not be avoided. Creating quality backlinks is definitely a time-consuming process. However, if you create only a few backlinks but you try to do it on a daily basis then this will also work for your e-commerce website.
Conclusion
E-commerce SEO never ends since rankings are always changing. Hence, this article’s six factors, however, will help you in creating a strong SEO foundation for your online store.
Ultimately, you must keep your content unique and accurate. Check your website frequently for technical issues, explore backlinking options, and keep an eye out for fresh keywords that complement your products and brand.
Lastly, we would like to conclude that SEO is a long-term process. It takes months to show results. You have to keep pushing yourself on a daily basis. You will definitely see good results if you keep your patience.
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